Million Bright Ambassadors
by Six-string Samurai
Summary: Explorers Ihrie & Fam find a new lead on a cure for Ehrie's pest problem, and this one looks like a golden opportunity for some quality time.
1. Ladies in the Lake

Ruin Explorers: The Million Bright Ambassadors

By Six-string Samurai (S3Cubed)

Chapter One

The windswept landscape at the base of the mountain was a tableau of silent gray and white. Not a single sign of wildlife anywhere, yet, the mountain was thick with spiritual energy. The frigid air was restless, and for the first time in a long while, Fam was beginning to annoy her taller companion with her complaints.

"I don't think we're supposed to be here." The bundled up blonde's words were almost completely muffled by the layers of cloth that was supposed to be keeping the freezing cold at bay.

Ihrie could hear her just fine, mostly since Fam had nearly plastered herself to Ihrie's side. Ihrie had almost lost the warmth of her cloak earlier because Fam had tried to fit inside too. "I'm not giving up, just because you have a bad feeling. That map was expensive, and it hasn't led us wrong yet."

"But, Ihrie!"

The raven haired explorer was about to expound her point when a particularly sharp gust tore at her cloak. Pulling the cloth tighter about herself, she moved closer to the face of the mountain where she hoped the wind would be obstructed by the jutting rocks. "We should be close to the path."

"You said that back when I could still feel my toes."

"Stop complaining and help me look. The faster we find that path, the quicker we can get inside. It's bound to be warmer in the cave." Ihrie pressed on, doing her best not to lose her footing on the larger rocks that were haphazardly strewn about. With the ground as uneven as it was, Fam ended up putting a little more room between herself and the nearest source of warmth.

It didn't take much longer before the two literally stumbled upon the maps so called path. Ihrie smirked beneath her scarves, and shot Fam an I told you so look. Not that it was much of a way up, or even that clearly marked. But, it was certainly not natural. If anything, it appeared as if someone had hewn a horribly uneven stairway out of the mountainside, a very thin and windy stairway at that. "Let's go Fam." Both girls carefully started up into the mountain, hoping the cave wasn't too high up.

---

The entrance to the cave was barred by a large wooden door that stretched several hand spans above Ihrie's head. Luckily, the staircase had eventually worn a deep enough path into the mountainside to block out all but the bitterest chill, with the wind itself nonexistent. This gave the girls a small reprieve and let them warm up enough to check the entry thoroughly.

The worn oak was fairly plain, and the only bit that caught their attention was a depression in the wood near the center of the door, where it appeared something once had been inlaid. The shape of the missing piece looked vaguely familiar to Ihrie, but it wasn't until Fam started jumping up and down excitedly that she recalled just what it reminded her of.

"Ihrie, it's the," Fam started to interject.

"Don't you dare touch that!"

It was an outline of the Satori Dragon. But, where was the three-eyed effigy?

"I wasn't going to touch anything Ihrie," the cat-girl's pout was obvious even through the layers of cloth. "It's just the spot where it goes anyway."

"Maybe. I just don't want a repeat of last time," the taller girl grumped in return. "We do need to find a way in though. It's not getting any warmer out here."

Fam's slight form wobbled as if she were nodding affirmation. "I can't feel my tail."

Ihrie paid the complaints little attention as she attempted to give the door an experimental shove. The wood creaked a little, but otherwise showed no sign of budging. There wasn't any handle, or place to get a good enough grip to pull on the door, so she left it at that. It didn't look like they were going to just force their way in, and she wasn't going to risk casting a spell. It was cold enough in her current form; she didn't even want to consider the short work the weather would make of her in a tiny rat body.

There was Fam of course, but asking her was pretty much out of the question as well. The Wiggan had been going on about the upset spirits the whole trek up to the mountain, and Ihrie had been around the girl long enough to know that Fam was very rarely willing to even risk upsetting the spirits with outright destruction.

"I didn't come all this way for nothing," Ihrie mumbled to herself, as she pulled a satchel out from beneath her robes, and dug for the map.

"Ihrie!" Fam's eyes widened as her partner held the map up nearly to her own nose to read it in what little daylight remained. Tiny words were scrawled on the back of the thick leather parchment.

"Quiet, I'm trying to read this. You can see it when I'm done."

"No! Ihrie, there's words," Fam reached out and tapped the back side of the map.

"Yeah, and I can't read 'em when you're poking the map. Hey!" Ihrie blinked as the map was snagged out of her hands. "What do you think you're doing Fam!" Her outrage was short lived as the cat-girl shoved the map right back in Ihrie's face.

"See! There's more on the back!"

Pulling it from her face, Ihrie was about to start yelling, when she found the other girl was right. "Hmm," she skimmed the glyphs, nodding to herself.

"Does it say how to get in? Maybe there's a secret passage."

Ihrie nodded a few more times, before handing the map over to the blonde. "I thought so."

Fam eagerly took the map, but found that the tiny script might as well have been scribbles for all that she could make out. "But, what does it say?"

"Why would I know, if you can't read it? It looks like some kid got a hold of the map and drew all over the back."

"But, Ihrie, you said you could read it," Fam was confused.

"No, all I said was I thought so. I thought it was just a bunch of doodles and I was right," she sighed, slumping against the wall.

"Now what are we supposed to do?" Fam's ears drooped in exasperation.

There was a soft click from the wall behind Ihrie, whose eyes widened as she slowly turned around. "Tell me that wasn't a trap."

"Fam," the swordswoman cried out as the young wiggan dropped out of sight into the hole that opened up in the middle of the ground in front of the door. She ran over to the edge in time to see her friend tumble headfirst down the stairway that had been uncovered. "Only stairs. I thought it was a pitfall," Ihrie consoled herself as she started down into the darkness. It was a relief to know some things did change over time. "Fam, are you okay? I'll be there in a second."

Unfortunately, her words rang true as she found out the hard way that the stairs were worn quite smooth, causing her to mistake her footing and tumble the rest of the way down. When she finally rolled to a stop at the base of the stairway she found herself looking up at a likewise battered Fam.

"Hey, it's a lot brighter in here than I expected. Warmer too."

Fam was too busy gingerly extracting her tail from her clothes to notice. "I think I broke it," the cat girl cradled her tail while trying to locate the source of the pain. "Owie. Ihrie, I landed wrong on my tail."

Ihrie pulled at her scarves, undoing the wrap so that she could breath. It wasn't just warm in the cavern, but stuffy and humid. "Let me see," she went over and inspected the injured appendage. "I don't think there's a right way to land on your tail, Fam."

"It's not funny. It really hurts."

"I wasn't trying to make a joke. But, if it makes you feel any better, I don't feel any breaks. Maybe you just sprained it. Try not to wiggle it around so much." Ihrie really didn't see a way to keep Fam from accidentally doing so, and decided the wiggan was just going to have to deal with it. She told her as much.

Ten minutes and not a little bellyaching later, found the girls wandering down the main corridor of the cavern. They'd discovered that the source of the ambient light was a soft fungal growth on the walls of the cave, probably due to the abnormal warmth and moisture present in the air. Fam had decided to run her hands along the fuzzy wall, and found that her fur came away faintly glowing, which amused her enough to take her mind off her sore tail for a few moments. Ihrie hadn't found it quite as funny, since Fam kept trying to ruffle Ihrie's hair with the glowing powder.

Eventually, the novelty wore off and the pair continued in silence, doing their best to watch for any sign of danger.

The cavern seemed to stretch on forever, and considering the size of the mountain, it was likely that they might end up walking a few miles before reaching the end. But that wasn't the case, as the corridor eventually widened considerably, and the sight stopped the girls in their tracks.

They found themselves staring out at a huge underground lake. The bed of the lake must've been covered in the same fungus as the rest of the cavern since the steaming waters pulsed a bright orange hue.

"It's so pretty," Fam broke the silence.

---

"Now we know why it's so warm down here," Ihrie looked out across the water, squinting to see through the clouds of steam that obscured most of the surface. "Looks like some kind of giant hot spring. What do you think?" She turned toward her companion, who was painstakingly trying to shed the outer layers of thick garments without stressing her tail any more than necessary. "Uh, Fam, what are you doing?"

"I'm all stuffy in these things." Fam wrestled for a moment with the scarves that were caught around an arm and one of her ears.

The swordswoman shrugged, figuring it was probably because the other girl was covered in a fine layer of fur. Ihrie herself was fine, once she'd loosened her heavy cloak. It wasn't that bad. That's when some of the distant clouds of steam thinned out, providing a brief glimpse of rocky ground too close to be the other shore. "Did you see that?"

"What? Was it the treasure?" Fam finally untangled herself, but missed seeing anything.

"Maybe. There's something out there, an island, or it could just be a big rock."

They waited a little longer, just in case the steam thinned again. If anything, it was harder to see across than before.

"How're we supposed to get over there?" Ihrie watched as Fam knelt down close to the water's edge.

"I don't feel any magic coming from the water. And it doesn't seem to be very deep. Look, it's clear once you get the steam out of the way." Fam demonstrated by waving her arm out over the water.

And she was right. The glowing fuzz on the rock bed was clearly visible, and was at most only a meter deep. Not that there was any way of telling if there was a sudden drop off hidden within the rolling haze.

"Think there's anything swimming around out there Fam?"

"Like fish? Seems kind of hot for that."

"Hmm, you're probably right. I've never seen fish in a hot spring before. I'm surprised there's that fungus, or moss, whatever, growing in there." Ihrie turned toward the cat-girl, who was starting to laugh. "What's so funny now?"

"Ihrie, think we'll turn orange if we go for a swim?" Fam recalled how her fingers had retained a bit of the glow for a little while after she'd brushed the wall. She'd wanted her friend to try it too, since it appeared a harmless bit of fun, but now the image of an Ihrie glowing orange from head to foot was almost too much to bear.

Ihrie, for her part, was thinking along the same lines, now that Fam had mentioned it, and found the image much less amusing. "I hope not. That crap didn't come off your fingers right away, and I don't want to walk back into town like some kind of overgrown firebug.

That only set Fam to giggling harder.

"Okay, when you calm down, think you can do away with these clouds so we can see where to go?"

Fam nodded as her eyes sparkled with tears of laughter.

Once Fam's wind spell died down, the girls were able to see across the lake almost in its entirety. It was very wide, and looked about the same depth all the way across, save for one bit. An island rose near the middle of the lake, barely breaking the surface. However, it was what stood on that island that decided their course of action.

Three stone columns flanked what appeared to be some kind of table or pedestal in the center. Neither Ihrie, nor Fam was able to see clearly enough if there was something of value there, but at this point, the possibility alone was worth it.

"All right, let's get going Fam!"


	2. Horseshoes and Blue Moons

Ruin Explorers: The Million Bright Ambassadors

By Six-string Samurai (S3Cubed)

Chapter Two

The two pulled themselves out of the water and onto the island stone. Contrary to Fam's wish, and Ihrie's fear, neither was glowing. Apparently the powder wasn't water soluble and remained on the lake floor. Ihrie thanked the spirits, and helped Fam to her feet. They'd decided to swim across in their undergarments, leaving the heavier clothing on the shore. This proved to be a good thing as the area around the middle of the lake ended up being more than two meters deep. Ihrie had considered wading across, holding their normal garb overhead and redressing on the island. She'd thought better of it on the off chance that the water would stain her clothes, and leave them sopping wet, not a good idea given the weather conditions outside the cavern.

Now that they were on the island proper, they could fully appreciate the intricate design of the stone columns, which had not been visible at any distance. On each of the pillars, life size human likenesses were carved in relief facing inward, toward the central pedestal. The carvings hadn't been noticeable from the water as they were set several hand spans up from the base of the respective pillar. Strangely, none of the stone on the island bore the orange fungus that covered the rest of the cavern, yet another reason why it had been harder to spot through the steam clouds.

Of the three figures, two were decidedly female, and the third may or may not have been. Any distinguishing characteristics had long been worn away. While Ihrie turned her attention to the pedestal, Fam continued to study the three figures, as they struck a thread of elusive memory.

"Hey, which eye did you press last time?"

The question brought the cat-girl out of her reverie. "Hmm?"

The raven haired girl scowled at her partner's scatterbrained behavior. "Get over here. I found one of those, three-eyed dragon, things."

"A Satori Dragon?"

"Yeah, now which one should we press that won't try to get us killed?"

"Um, the left one?"

Ihrie scowled again. "You sound awful sure of yourself. Don't you remember which is which?"

Fam cringed, "I do. But, last time I was just guessing so you would let go of my tail!" Naturally mentioning the experience reminded the blonde that her tail was still out of sorts and the pain flared up all over again. She whimpered a bit, and scooted over to the pedestal. There in the center, staring up at them was a larger version of the Satori Dragon effigy. "I think it opened the floor last time, when I pressed the middle one."

"Okay, good, we can rule that one out then. So," she trailed off, regarding Fam expectantly.

"Left is the eye of Good, and right is the eye of Evil."

Ihrie started to reach for the left eye, figuring that since they were good, it would be best to press that one.

"Wait! Don't press that one!"

Startled, Ihrie snatched back her outstretched fingers scant centimeters from the effigy. "You just said that left was good, what gives?"

"I remembered. Left is the eye that sees Good, and right is the eye that sees Evil. We should press the right eye. If there isn't any Evil to see, then it can't trigger the traps. Right?"

"I guess that makes sense. Speaking of traps, what do you suppose this place might throw at us?" Ihrie glanced at the three statues, mindful of what supposedly inanimate objects were capable of when magic was involved.

But, her friend wasn't paying attention, having decided that she was right, Fam confidently smashed her palm on the right eye of the Satori Dragon.

---

Nothing happened, for all of five seconds. The grinding of stone on stone pulled Fam and Ihrie's attention away from the pedestal and toward the pillars. They watched, unsure of what to do, as all three statues slid upward into their recesses in the stonework, revealing a small alcove behind each one. The girls waited longer, for any other sign of movement, but once the statues had fully receded, the cavern was once again shrouded in mist and silence.

Ihrie was the first to move, with Fam close on her heels as she approached the nearest pillar. Inside the alcove, there was an ornate box small enough to fit in the palm of her hand.

Likewise, the treasure hunters found two similar boxes in the adjacent alcoves. Gathering up all three, the girls returned to the pedestal, which was more than wide enough to accommodate the boxes.

"Fam, look, they're the same color as the Dragon's eyes." It was true, that the Satori Dragon's stone eyes were each a slightly different shade of the same color, while boxes all bore a similar shade in their panels. "What do you think it means?"

The wiggan wasn't sure, but she wished that she could recall where she'd seen the statues before. It felt important. Her fingers wanted to just open the boxes, but until she was sure they weren't trapped, or worse, she held back. "I don't know. We could just open them," the usual happy-go-lucky conviction was sorely lacking in her words.

"Why do I hear a 'but' in there? These are treasures, aren't they? What if we take them back to town and they end up being empty? That would mean you hurt yourself for nothing."

"That's mean, Ihrie."

"Well, if you don't have a good reason, then I say we just open them and find out. We've been lucky so far, right? I'd like to make use of that and hope we hit it big."

"But, the spirits weren't happy about this place."

"And that didn't stop you from coming down here and swimming did it?"

"Um, no?"

"Then, let's get this over with. It's probably already dark outside, and we still have a long walk back. Unless you want to camp here tonight? I'm sure the spirits would love the company."

Fam appeared to mull it over, but didn't appear happy with whatever she'd decided.

"Well?"

The shorter girl continued to waffle, picking up the box that corresponded to the Eye that Sees Evil. "This one might be safe."

"Yeah, the Eye didn't set off any traps, so why would the box be any different? Come on, open it already. I'll do it if you're too scared."

Ihrie's mild jab proved to be too much for the excitable wiggan, who popped the lid with no small flourish. The expression on her face was unreadable as she peered at the contents.

"Let me see too," the swordswoman exclaimed, propping her head on Fam's shoulder to get a view. "What is that, a piece of glass?" Fam didn't answer immediately.

Indeed, placed in a niche in the bottom of the box was a silvered shard that might have belonged to a mirror, if the perfect reflection of the faces peering into it were any indication. The edges were all evenly scored, save one, which bore a bit of silver gilding.

"I think it goes to a mirror," Fam spoke momentarily.

"Wanna bet the other boxes have the rest of the pieces?"

---

Soon all three boxes were open, discarded on one end of the pedestal, while the girls tried to make sense of the seven shards they now had laid out. Each of the pieces bore a single gilded edge, as if they belonged together, but none of them fit together in any conceivable way.

"I'm not too good with puzzles, but I'd say that we're missing a few dozen pieces. I mean why would someone go through all the trouble of getting these into separate boxes, and not even have all the bits?"

Fam shook her head, "Maybe we're not doing it right. They look like they're supposed to go together, but the edges are all wrong."

"You can say that again."

"But they are, one's a, uh, moon. And that one's a sun, maybe."

The raven haired girl thumped a clear spot on the pedestal with her fist. "I know what the shapes are Fam, I'm not a little kid!"

"I'm sorry," the wiggan ventured, downcast.

"It's not your fault. Let's just put them back in the boxes and start heading back. We'll probably have to find someone who knows more about this, and maybe where the other pieces are.

It didn't take long for them to swim back across to their clothes.

Ihrie wrung out her undershirt so it wouldn't be quite so damp against the chill when they got outside, while Fam shrugged back into the winter gear still conscious of her injury. It would be a shame to have to leave the pleasant warmth of the springs, but they only had a few days worth of supplies with them and it would take most of that just to get back to civilization.

Usually, they brought pack horses, however they'd been forced to leave them at the stables of the last outpost between here and Ipsward, one of the few towns to have a decent Inn this far north. The guard station at the outpost had informed them that it would be too dangerous to bring pack animals any further due to the increasingly rough terrain. After slogging through the barren fields and jutting spires of rock, the girls had been inclined to agree. A horse with a broken leg would do no good in getting there or back again.

The journey back to the stairway didn't take quite as long as the initial trip, and the girls spent the time in contemplative silence.

Ihrie was concerned with finding a reliable source that she could hit up for information, while Fam did her best to recall anything at all about the three statues they'd found.

She felt that it was something rather important, and for the life of her, couldn't remember the slightest bit, which both puzzled and worried the young wiggan.

When the duo finally reached the surface, they found dusk had long since passed. It was also much colder than before, even in the windless mountain path.


	3. It begins

Ruin Explorers: The Million Bright Ambassadors

By Six-string Samurai (S3Cubed)

Chapter Three

They might have considered going back to Ipsward if there had been a little daylight left, but taking the terrain into account, the girls decided it would be safer to spend the rest of the night at the bottom of the stairs leading into the cavern. It was much warmer there, and sleeping by the water just didn't sit right for some reason. It could have had to do with all that open space hidden by the steam clouds. Either way, they undid Fam's pack and pulled out a large blanket for the both of them. Using their packs as makeshift pillows, the girls settled down for the night. They'd even had the luxury of a warm bath.

Fam awoke to find Ihrie sprawled half in and out of the blanket, snoring away, oblivious to the light streaming down from the hole above. The cat girl stretched some, and sat up on her knees. She'd had to sleep on her stomach for fear of aggravating whatever she'd done to her poor tail. While she was no stranger to sleeping on uncomfortable surfaces, Fam usually had the luxury of changing positions while she slept. She ached all over. Maybe they should've hiked back to that outpost last night. She could've had a bed to sleep in, and some breakfast, even if it was paltry.

She started to poke at Ihrie, intent on waking her, when she remembered the lake. That would do wonders toward getting the kinks out of her body. The other treasure hunter surely wanted to sleep in, so Fam figured she'd go for a swim, and let Ihrie rest a little longer in the process.

---

When the swordswoman woke, she found herself alone. "Fam?" Had the other girl gone outside? She sat up, pulling on her cloak to go check the top of the stairs, only to find the entryway empty as well. Puzzled, but not overly concerned, she headed back down into the cavern. It was possible that the cat girl had gone off to find something to eat. There was also the matter of the local spirits. The blonde had been overly concerned about that in Ihrie's opinion.

While she waited on her partner to return, Ihrie repacked their things. It was still relatively early, and she wanted to get to Ipsward by lunchtime. It had only taken them a few hours to get to the mountain from the outpost. Once they were on horseback, it would be about the same amount of time from there to the town. If they left soon, and the weather held, her estimate would be about right. Her stomach chose that moment to make its thought on the matter known.

---

Meanwhile, the wiggan was enjoying a nice long soak in the heated waters of the lake. She'd considered swimming back out to the island; maybe the statues would jog her memory, but once she'd fully immersed herself that thought had been pushed aside. Still, if there was one thing that disappointed her, it was the lack of glow on her fur. She scrunched her toes through the silt at the bottom of the lake, trying to stir it up to no avail.

Mildly put off, but physically feeling much better, Fam clambered out of the water. She wondered if Ihrie might be awake by now, and began the walk back. Hopefully, she'd be dry by the time she got there.

---

"You could have at least woken me up too," the swordswoman complained, when her partner returned, obviously having had gone for a swim.

---

True to Ihrie's calculations, the pair made it back to the Inn they were staying at in the northern town in time for a decent lunch. They were currently stuffing their faces, hungry from the long journey, and grateful to sit down on something that didn't move.

They'd discussed the problem of the shards at length on the trip back from the mountain, but hadn't reached an agreement on what their next move would be. Ihrie wanted to check up on the merchant who'd bartered her for the map. He might know more than he'd been letting on at the time. Fam thought that was a good idea, but she wanted to find more information on the Satori Dragon first.

Neither of the two choices would allow them to stay in the north however. Ihrie had found the map in a shady little corner of Grant City, and Fam wanted to visit her village so she could consult her teacher's library. This led Ihrie to think of her own teacher, and the books he had in his possession. It had been a few years since she'd last set foot anywhere near the place, but she'd also heard more than one rumor that the old man had passed on. Maybe it was high time that she dropped in to pay her respects, and maybe find a way to undo the curse while she was at it.


End file.
